Defect Detection via Audio Playback

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of detecting detects in a playback device via audio playback are provided. A playback device may play a test sound during a time period, and capture, via one or more microphones of the playback device, the test sound during the time period. A determination that a defect in the playback device has been detected may be based on the recorded test sound.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority as a continuation under35 U.S.C. § 120 to U.S. application Ser. No. 15/087,314 entitled “DefectDetection via Audio Playback” filed on Mar. 31, 2016, the contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The disclosure is related to consumer goods and, more particularly, tomethods, systems, products, features, services, and other elementsdirected to media playback or some aspect thereof.

BACKGROUND

Options for accessing and listening to digital audio in an out-loudsetting were limited until in 2003, when SONOS, Inc. filed for one ofits first patent applications, entitled “Method for Synchronizing AudioPlayback between Multiple Networked Devices,” and began offering a mediaplayback system for sale in 2005. The Sonos Wireless HiFi System enablespeople to experience music from many sources via one or more networkedplayback devices. Through a software control application installed on asmartphone, tablet, or computer, one can play what he or she wants inany room that has a networked playback device. Additionally, using thecontroller, for example, different songs can be streamed to each roomwith a playback device, rooms can be grouped together for synchronousplayback, or the same song can be heard in all rooms synchronously.

Given the ever growing interest in digital media, there continues to bea need to develop consumer-accessible technologies to further enhancethe listening experience.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features, aspects, and advantages of the presently disclosed technologymay be better understood with regard to the following description,appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1 shows an example media playback system configuration in whichcertain embodiments may be practiced;

FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of an example playback device;

FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram of an example control device;

FIG. 4 shows an example controller interface;

FIGS. 5A and 5B show an example flow diagram for an illustrative methodfor detecting defects according to aspects described herein.

FIG. 6 shows an example flow diagram for an illustrative method foradjusting audio settings based on usage activity according to aspectsdescribed herein.

The drawings are for the purpose of illustrating example embodiments,but it is understood that the inventions are not limited to thearrangements and instrumentality shown in the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. Overview

Some embodiments described herein involve detecting for playback devicedefects and/or abnormal behavior. The defects and/or abnormal behaviormay be detected by having the playback device play a test sound. In oneembodiment, the playback device may play a test sound which is recordedand then used to determine whether the playback device has a defectand/or abnormal behavior. In another embodiment, playback device usageactivity may be monitored, and audio settings of the playback device maybe adjusted based on the usage activity.

As indicated above, the examples provided herein may involve detecting adefect via audio playback on a playback device. In one aspect, aplayback device is provided. The playback device may include one or moreprocessors, one or more transducers, one or more microphones, and memoryhaving stored thereon instructions executable by the one or moreprocessors to cause the playback device to perform functions. Thefunctions may include playing a test sound via the one or moretransducers. The one or more microphones may capture the test sound, andthe playback device may record the captured test sound. The playbackdevice may cause the recorded test sound to be compared with an expectedtest sound. A determination of whether the playback device a defect isdetermined or exists may be based on the recorded test sound.

In another aspect, a method may be provided. The method may includeplaying, via a playback device, a test sound, and capturing, via one ormore microphones of the playback device, the test sound. The method mayfurther include causing a comparison of the recorded test sound with anexpected test sound. A determination that a defect in the playbackdevice exists may be based on the comparison.

In yet another aspect, a non-transitory computer readable memory isprovided. The non-transitory computer readable memory has stored thereoninstructions executable by a computing device to cause the computingdevice to perform functions. The functions include playing a test soundand capturing, via one or more microphones of the playback device, thetest sound. The functions can further include recording the capturedtest sound, causing a comparison of the recorded test sound with anexpected test sound and determining that a defect in the playback devicehas been detected based on the comparison.

While some examples described herein may refer to functions performed bygiven actors such as “users” and/or other entities, it should beunderstood that this is for purposes of explanation only. The claimsshould not be interpreted to require action by any such example actorunless explicitly required by the language of the claims themselves. Itwill be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that thisdisclosure includes numerous other embodiments.

II. Example Operating Environment

FIG. 1 shows an example configuration of a media playback system 100 inwhich one or more embodiments disclosed herein may be practiced orimplemented. The media playback system 100 as shown is associated withan example home environment having several rooms and spaces, such as forexample, a master bedroom, an office, a dining room, and a living room.As shown in the example of FIG. 1, the media playback system 100includes playback devices 102-124, control devices 126 and 128, and awired or wireless network router 130.

Further discussions relating to the different components of the examplemedia playback system 100 and how the different components may interactto provide a user with a media experience may be found in the followingsections. While discussions herein may generally refer to the examplemedia playback system 100, technologies described herein are not limitedto applications within, among other things, the home environment asshown in FIG. 1. For instance, the technologies described herein may beuseful in environments where multi-zone audio may be desired, such as,for example, a commercial setting like a restaurant, mall or airport, avehicle like a sports utility vehicle (SUV), bus or car, a ship or boat,an airplane, and so on.

a. Example Playback Devices

FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of an example playback device200 that may be configured to be one or more of the playback devices102-124 of the media playback system 100 of FIG. 1. The playback device200 may include a processor 202, software components 204, memory 206,audio processing components 208, audio amplifier(s) 210, speaker(s) 212,a network interface 214 including wireless interface(s) 216 and wiredinterface(s) 218, and microphone(s) 220. In one case, the playbackdevice 200 may not include the speaker(s) 212, but rather a speakerinterface for connecting the playback device 200 to external speakers.In another case, the playback device 200 may include neither thespeaker(s) 212 nor the audio amplifier(s) 210, but rather an audiointerface for connecting the playback device 200 to an external audioamplifier or audio-visual receiver.

In one example, the processor 202 may be a clock-driven computingcomponent configured to process input data according to instructionsstored in the memory 206. The memory 206 may be a tangiblecomputer-readable medium configured to store instructions executable bythe processor 202. For instance, the memory 206 may be data storage thatcan be loaded with one or more of the software components 204 executableby the processor 202 to achieve certain functions. In one example, thefunctions may involve the playback device 200 retrieving audio data froman audio source or another playback device. In another example, thefunctions may involve the playback device 200 sending audio data toanother device or playback device on a network. In yet another example,the functions may involve pairing of the playback device 200 with one ormore playback devices to create a multi-channel audio environment.

Certain functions may involve the playback device 200 synchronizingplayback of audio content with one or more other playback devices.During synchronous playback, a listener will preferably not be able toperceive time-delay differences between playback of the audio content bythe playback device 200 and the one or more other playback devices. U.S.Pat. No. 8,234,395 entitled, “System and method for synchronizingoperations among a plurality of independently clocked digital dataprocessing devices,” which is hereby incorporated by reference, providesin more detail some examples for audio playback synchronization amongplayback devices.

The memory 206 may further be configured to store data associated withthe playback device 200, such as one or more zones and/or zone groupsthe playback device 200 is a part of, audio sources accessible by theplayback device 200, or a playback queue that the playback device 200(or some other playback device) may be associated with. The data may bestored as one or more state variables that are periodically updated andused to describe the state of the playback device 200. The memory 206may also include the data associated with the state of the other devicesof the media system, and shared from time to time among the devices sothat one or more of the devices have the most recent data associatedwith the system. Other embodiments are also possible.

The audio processing components 208 may include one or moredigital-to-analog converters (DAC), an audio preprocessing component, anaudio enhancement component or a digital signal processor (DSP), and soon. In one embodiment, one or more of the audio processing components208 may be a subcomponent of the processor 202. In one example, audiocontent may be processed and/or intentionally altered by the audioprocessing components 208 to produce audio signals. The produced audiosignals may then be provided to the audio amplifier(s) 210 foramplification and playback through speaker(s) 212. Particularly, theaudio amplifier(s) 210 may include devices configured to amplify audiosignals to a level for driving one or more of the speakers 212. Thespeaker(s) 212 may include an individual transducer (e.g., a “driver”)or a complete speaker system involving an enclosure with one or moredrivers. A particular driver of the speaker(s) 212 may include, forexample, a subwoofer (e.g., for low frequencies), a mid-range driver(e.g., for middle frequencies), and/or a tweeter (e.g., for highfrequencies). In some cases, each transducer in the one or more speakers212 may be driven by an individual corresponding audio amplifier of theaudio amplifier(s) 210. In addition to producing analog signals forplayback by the playback device 200, the audio processing components 208may be configured to process audio content to be sent to one or moreother playback devices for playback.

Audio content to be processed and/or played back by the playback device200 may be received from an external source, such as via an audioline-in input connection (e.g., an auto-detecting 3.5 mm audio line-inconnection) or the network interface 214.

The network interface 214 may be configured to facilitate a data flowbetween the playback device 200 and one or more other devices on a datanetwork. As such, the playback device 200 may be configured to receiveaudio content over the data network from one or more other playbackdevices in communication with the playback device 200, network deviceswithin a local area network, or audio content sources over a wide areanetwork such as the Internet. In one example, the audio content andother signals transmitted and received by the playback device 200 may betransmitted in the form of digital packet data containing an InternetProtocol (IP)-based source address and IP-based destination addresses.In such a case, the network interface 214 may be configured to parse thedigital packet data such that the data destined for the playback device200 is properly received and processed by the playback device 200.

As shown, the network interface 214 may include wireless interface(s)216 and wired interface(s) 218. The wireless interface(s) 216 mayprovide network interface functions for the playback device 200 towirelessly communicate with other devices (e.g., other playbackdevice(s), speaker(s), receiver(s), network device(s), control device(s)within a data network the playback device 200 is associated with) inaccordance with a communication protocol (e.g., any wireless standardincluding IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.15, 4Gmobile communication standard, and so on). The wired interface(s) 218may provide network interface functions for the playback device 200 tocommunicate over a wired connection with other devices in accordancewith a communication protocol (e.g., IEEE 802.3). While the networkinterface 214 shown in FIG. 2 includes both wireless interface(s) 216and wired interface(s) 218, the network interface 214 may in someembodiments include only wireless interface(s) or only wiredinterface(s).

The microphone(s) 220 may be arranged to detect sound in the environmentof the playback device 200. For instance, the microphone(s) may bemounted on an exterior wall of a housing of the playback device. Themicrophone(s) may be any type of microphone now known or later developedsuch as a condenser microphone, electret condenser microphone, or adynamic microphone. The microphone(s) may be sensitive to a portion ofthe frequency range of the speaker(s) 220. One or more of the speaker(s)220 may operate in reverse as the microphone(s) 220. In some aspects,the playback device 200 might not have microphone(s) 220.

In one example, the playback device 200 and one other playback devicemay be paired to play two separate audio components of audio content.For instance, playback device 200 may be configured to play a leftchannel audio component, while the other playback device may beconfigured to play a right channel audio component, thereby producing orenhancing a stereo effect of the audio content. The paired playbackdevices (also referred to as “bonded playback devices”) may further playaudio content in synchrony with other playback devices.

In another example, the playback device 200 may be sonicallyconsolidated with one or more other playback devices to form a single,consolidated playback device. A consolidated playback device may beconfigured to process and reproduce sound differently than anunconsolidated playback device or playback devices that are paired,because a consolidated playback device may have additional speakerdrivers through which audio content may be rendered. For instance, ifthe playback device 200 is a playback device designed to render lowfrequency range audio content (i.e. a subwoofer), the playback device200 may be consolidated with a playback device designed to render fullfrequency range audio content. In such a case, the full frequency rangeplayback device, when consolidated with the low frequency playbackdevice 200, may be configured to render only the mid and high frequencycomponents of audio content, while the low frequency range playbackdevice 200 renders the low frequency component of the audio content. Theconsolidated playback device may further be paired with a singleplayback device or yet another consolidated playback device.

By way of illustration, SONOS, Inc. presently offers (or has offered)for sale certain playback devices including a “PLAY:1,” “PLAY:3,”“PLAY:5,” “PLAYBAR,” “CONNECT:AMP,” “CONNECT,” and “SUB.” Any otherpast, present, and/or future playback devices may additionally oralternatively be used to implement the playback devices of exampleembodiments disclosed herein. Additionally, it is understood that aplayback device is not limited to the example illustrated in FIG. 2 orto the SONOS product offerings. For example, a playback device mayinclude a wired or wireless headphone. In another example, a playbackdevice may include or interact with a docking station for personalmobile media playback devices. In yet another example, a playback devicemay be integral to another device or component such as a television, alighting fixture, or some other device for indoor or outdoor use.

b. Example Playback Zone Configurations

Referring back to the media playback system 100 of FIG. 1, theenvironment may have one or more playback zones, each with one or moreplayback devices. The media playback system 100 may be established withone or more playback zones, after which one or more zones may be added,or removed to arrive at the example configuration shown in FIG. 1. Eachzone may be given a name according to a different room or space such asan office, bathroom, master bedroom, bedroom, kitchen, dining room,living room, and/or balcony. In one case, a single playback zone mayinclude multiple rooms or spaces. In another case, a single room orspace may include multiple playback zones.

As shown in FIG. 1, the balcony, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, office,and bedroom zones each have one playback device, while the living roomand master bedroom zones each have multiple playback devices. In theliving room zone, playback devices 104, 106, 108, and 110 may beconfigured to play audio content in synchrony as individual playbackdevices, as one or more bonded playback devices, as one or moreconsolidated playback devices, or any combination thereof. Similarly, inthe case of the master bedroom, playback devices 122 and 124 may beconfigured to play audio content in synchrony as individual playbackdevices, as a bonded playback device, or as a consolidated playbackdevice.

In one example, one or more playback zones in the environment of FIG. 1may each be playing different audio content. For instance, the user maybe grilling in the balcony zone and listening to hip hop music beingplayed by the playback device 102 while another user may be preparingfood in the kitchen zone and listening to classical music being playedby the playback device 114. In another example, a playback zone may playthe same audio content in synchrony with another playback zone. Forinstance, the user may be in the office zone where the playback device118 is playing the same rock music that is being playing by playbackdevice 102 in the balcony zone. In such a case, playback devices 102 and118 may be playing the rock music in synchrony such that the user mayseamlessly (or at least substantially seamlessly) enjoy the audiocontent that is being played out-loud while moving between differentplayback zones.

Synchronization among playback zones may be achieved in a manner similarto that of synchronization among playback devices, as described inpreviously referenced U.S. Pat. No. 8,234,395.

As suggested above, the zone configurations of the media playback system100 may be dynamically modified, and in some embodiments, the mediaplayback system 100 supports numerous configurations. For instance, if auser physically moves one or more playback devices to or from a zone,the media playback system 100 may be reconfigured to accommodate thechange(s). For instance, if the user physically moves the playbackdevice 102 from the balcony zone to the office zone, the office zone maynow include both the playback device 118 and the playback device 102.The playback device 102 may be paired or grouped with the office zoneand/or renamed if so desired via a control device such as the controldevices 126 and 128. On the other hand, if the one or more playbackdevices are moved to a particular area in the home environment that isnot already a playback zone, a new playback zone may be created for theparticular area.

Further, different playback zones of the media playback system 100 maybe dynamically combined into zone groups or split up into individualplayback zones. For instance, the dining room zone and the kitchen zone114 may be combined into a zone group for a dinner party such thatplayback devices 112 and 114 may render audio content in synchrony. Onthe other hand, the living room zone may be split into a television zoneincluding playback device 104, and a listening zone including playbackdevices 106, 108, and 110, if the user wishes to listen to music in theliving room space while another user wishes to watch television.

c. Example Control Devices

FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram of an example control device 300that may be configured to be one or both of the control devices 126 and128 of the media playback system 100. As shown, the control device 300may include a processor 302, memory 304, a network interface 306, a userinterface 308, microphone(s) 310, and software components 312. In oneexample, the control device 300 may be a dedicated controller for themedia playback system 100. In another example, the control device 300may be a network device on which media playback system controllerapplication software may be installed, such as for example, an iPhone™,iPad™ or any other smart phone, tablet or network device (e.g., anetworked computer such as a PC or Mac™).

The processor 302 may be configured to perform functions relevant tofacilitating user access, control, and configuration of the mediaplayback system 100. The memory 304 may be data storage that can beloaded with one or more of the software components executable by theprocessor 302 to perform those functions. The memory 304 may also beconfigured to store the media playback system controller applicationsoftware and other data associated with the media playback system 100and the user.

In one example, the network interface 306 may be based on an industrystandard (e.g., infrared, radio, wired standards including IEEE 802.3,wireless standards including IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n,802.11ac, 802.15, 4G mobile communication standard, and so on). Thenetwork interface 306 may provide a means for the control device 300 tocommunicate with other devices in the media playback system 100. In oneexample, data and information (e.g., such as a state variable) may becommunicated between control device 300 and other devices via thenetwork interface 306. For instance, playback zone and zone groupconfigurations in the media playback system 100 may be received by thecontrol device 300 from a playback device or another network device, ortransmitted by the control device 300 to another playback device ornetwork device via the network interface 306. In some cases, the othernetwork device may be another control device.

Playback device control commands such as volume control and audioplayback control may also be communicated from the control device 300 toa playback device via the network interface 306. As suggested above,changes to configurations of the media playback system 100 may also beperformed by a user using the control device 300. The configurationchanges may include adding/removing one or more playback devices to/froma zone, adding/removing one or more zones to/from a zone group, forminga bonded or consolidated player, separating one or more playback devicesfrom a bonded or consolidated player, among others. Accordingly, thecontrol device 300 may sometimes be referred to as a controller, whetherthe control device 300 is a dedicated controller or a network device onwhich media playback system controller application software isinstalled.

Control device 300 may include microphone(s) 310. Microphone(s) 310 maybe arranged to detect sound in the environment of the control device300. Microphone(s) 310 may be any type of microphone now known or laterdeveloped such as a condenser microphone, electret condenser microphone,or a dynamic microphone. The microphone(s) may be sensitive to a portionof a frequency range. Two or more microphones 310 may be arranged tocapture location information of an audio source (e.g., voice, audiblesound) and/or to assist in filtering background noise.

The user interface 308 of the control device 300 may be configured tofacilitate user access and control of the media playback system 100, byproviding a controller interface such as the controller interface 400shown in FIG. 4. The controller interface 400 includes a playbackcontrol region 410, a playback zone region 420, a playback status region430, a playback queue region 440, and an audio content sources region450. The user interface 400 as shown is just one example of a userinterface that may be provided on a network device such as the controldevice 300 of FIG. 3 (and/or the control devices 126 and 128 of FIG. 1)and accessed by users to control a media playback system such as themedia playback system 100. Other user interfaces of varying formats,styles, and interactive sequences may alternatively be implemented onone or more network devices to provide comparable control access to amedia playback system.

The playback control region 410 may include selectable (e.g., by way oftouch or by using a cursor) icons to cause playback devices in aselected playback zone or zone group to play or pause, fast forward,rewind, skip to next, skip to previous, enter/exit shuffle mode,enter/exit repeat mode, enter/exit cross fade mode. The playback controlregion 410 may also include selectable icons to modify equalizationsettings, and playback volume, among other possibilities.

The playback zone region 420 may include representations of playbackzones within the media playback system 100. In some embodiments, thegraphical representations of playback zones may be selectable to bringup additional selectable icons to manage or configure the playback zonesin the media playback system, such as a creation of bonded zones,creation of zone groups, separation of zone groups, and renaming of zonegroups, among other possibilities.

For example, as shown, a “group” icon may be provided within each of thegraphical representations of playback zones. The “group” icon providedwithin a graphical representation of a particular zone may be selectableto bring up options to select one or more other zones in the mediaplayback system to be grouped with the particular zone. Once grouped,playback devices in the zones that have been grouped with the particularzone will be configured to play audio content in synchrony with theplayback device(s) in the particular zone. Analogously, a “group” iconmay be provided within a graphical representation of a zone group. Inthis case, the “group” icon may be selectable to bring up options todeselect one or more zones in the zone group to be removed from the zonegroup. Other interactions and implementations for grouping andungrouping zones via a user interface such as the user interface 400 arealso possible. The representations of playback zones in the playbackzone region 420 may be dynamically updated as playback zone or zonegroup configurations are modified.

The playback status region 430 may include graphical representations ofaudio content that is presently being played, previously played, orscheduled to play next in the selected playback zone or zone group. Theselected playback zone or zone group may be visually distinguished onthe user interface, such as within the playback zone region 420 and/orthe playback status region 430. The graphical representations mayinclude track title, artist name, album name, album year, track length,and other relevant information that may be useful for the user to knowwhen controlling the media playback system via the user interface 400.

The playback queue region 440 may include graphical representations ofaudio content in a playback queue associated with the selected playbackzone or zone group. In some embodiments, each playback zone or zonegroup may be associated with a playback queue containing informationcorresponding to zero or more audio items for playback by the playbackzone or zone group. For instance, each audio item in the playback queuemay comprise a uniform resource identifier (URI), a uniform resourcelocator (URL) or some other identifier that may be used by a playbackdevice in the playback zone or zone group to find and/or retrieve theaudio item from a local audio content source or a networked audiocontent source, possibly for playback by the playback device.

In one example, a playlist may be added to a playback queue, in whichcase information corresponding to each audio item in the playlist may beadded to the playback queue. In another example, audio items in aplayback queue may be saved as a playlist. In a further example, aplayback queue may be empty, or populated but “not in use” when theplayback zone or zone group is playing continuously streaming audiocontent, such as Internet radio that may continue to play untilotherwise stopped, rather than discrete audio items that have playbackdurations. In an alternative embodiment, a playback queue can includeInternet radio and/or other streaming audio content items and be “inuse” when the playback zone or zone group is playing those items. Otherexamples are also possible.

When playback zones or zone groups are “grouped” or “ungrouped,”playback queues associated with the affected playback zones or zonegroups may be cleared or re-associated. For example, if a first playbackzone including a first playback queue is grouped with a second playbackzone including a second playback queue, the established zone group mayhave an associated playback queue that is initially empty, that containsaudio items from the first playback queue (such as if the secondplayback zone was added to the first playback zone), that contains audioitems from the second playback queue (such as if the first playback zonewas added to the second playback zone), or a combination of audio itemsfrom both the first and second playback queues. Subsequently, if theestablished zone group is ungrouped, the resulting first playback zonemay be re-associated with the previous first playback queue, or beassociated with a new playback queue that is empty or contains audioitems from the playback queue associated with the established zone groupbefore the established zone group was ungrouped. Similarly, theresulting second playback zone may be re-associated with the previoussecond playback queue, or be associated with a new playback queue thatis empty, or contains audio items from the playback queue associatedwith the established zone group before the established zone group wasungrouped. Other examples are also possible.

Referring back to the user interface 400 of FIG. 4, the graphicalrepresentations of audio content in the playback queue region 440 mayinclude track titles, artist names, track lengths, and other relevantinformation associated with the audio content in the playback queue. Inone example, graphical representations of audio content may beselectable to bring up additional selectable icons to manage and/ormanipulate the playback queue and/or audio content represented in theplayback queue. For instance, a represented audio content may be removedfrom the playback queue, moved to a different position within theplayback queue, or selected to be played immediately, or after anycurrently playing audio content, among other possibilities. A playbackqueue associated with a playback zone or zone group may be stored in amemory on one or more playback devices in the playback zone or zonegroup, on a playback device that is not in the playback zone or zonegroup, and/or some other designated device.

The audio content sources region 450 may include graphicalrepresentations of selectable audio content sources from which audiocontent may be retrieved and played by the selected playback zone orzone group. Discussions pertaining to audio content sources may be foundin the following section.

d. Example Audio Content Sources

As indicated previously, one or more playback devices in a zone or zonegroup may be configured to retrieve for playback audio content (e.g.according to a corresponding URI or URL for the audio content) from avariety of available audio content sources. In one example, audiocontent may be retrieved by a playback device directly from acorresponding audio content source (e.g., a line-in connection). Inanother example, audio content may be provided to a playback device overa network via one or more other playback devices or network devices.

Example audio content sources may include a memory of one or moreplayback devices in a media playback system such as the media playbacksystem 100 of FIG. 1, local music libraries on one or more networkdevices (such as a control device, a network-enabled personal computer,or a networked-attached storage (NAS), for example), streaming audioservices providing audio content via the Internet (e.g., the cloud), oraudio sources connected to the media playback system via a line-in inputconnection on a playback device or network devise, among otherpossibilities.

In some embodiments, audio content sources may be regularly added orremoved from a media playback system such as the media playback system100 of FIG. 1. In one example, an indexing of audio items may beperformed whenever one or more audio content sources are added, removedor updated. Indexing of audio items may involve scanning foridentifiable audio items in all folders/directory shared over a networkaccessible by playback devices in the media playback system, andgenerating or updating an audio content database containing metadata(e.g., title, artist, album, track length, among others) and otherassociated information, such as a URI or URL for each identifiable audioitem found. Other examples for managing and maintaining audio contentsources may also be possible.

The above discussions relating to playback devices, controller devices,playback zone configurations, and media content sources provide onlysome examples of operating environments within which functions andmethods described below may be implemented. Other operating environmentsand configurations of media playback systems, playback devices, andnetwork devices not explicitly described herein may also be applicableand suitable for implementation of the functions and methods.

III. Example Method and System of Detecting Defects in a Speaker ViaAudio Playback

As discussed above, embodiments described herein may involve detectingdefects in a speaker via audio playback. Method 500 shown in FIGS. 5Aand 5B present an embodiment of a method that can be implemented withinan operating environment involving, for example, the media playbacksystem 100 of FIG. 1, one or more of the playback device 200 of FIG. 2,and one or more of the control device 300 of FIG. 3. Method 500 mayinclude one or more operations, functions, or actions as illustrated byone or more of blocks 502-524. Although the blocks are illustrated insequential order, these blocks may also be performed in parallel, and/orin a different order than those described herein. Also, the variousblocks may be combined into fewer blocks, divided into additionalblocks, and/or removed based upon the desired implementation.

In addition, for the method 500 and other processes and methodsdisclosed herein, the flowchart shows functionality and operation of onepossible implementation of present embodiments. In this regard, eachblock may represent a module, a segment, or a portion of program code,which includes one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. Theprogram code may be stored on any type of computer readable medium, forexample, such as a storage device including a disk or hard drive. Thecomputer readable medium may include non-transitory computer readablemedium, for example, such as computer-readable media that stores datafor short periods of time like register memory, processor cache andRandom Access Memory (RAM). The computer readable medium may alsoinclude non-transitory media, such as secondary or persistent long termstorage, like read only memory (ROM), optical or magnetic disks,compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. The computerreadable media may also be any other volatile or non-volatile storagesystems. The computer readable medium may be considered a computerreadable storage medium, for example, or a tangible storage device. Inaddition, for the method 500 and other processes and methods disclosedherein, each block in FIGS. 5A and 5B may represent circuitry that iswired to perform the specific logical functions in the process.

FIGS. 5A and 5B show a flow diagram of an illustrative method 500 ofdetecting a defect in a playback device (e.g., playback device 200) viaaudio playback. Defects in a playback device can vary from wear and tearof playback device parts to damaged playback device parts resulting fromfalling from a height, drops, contact with external objects (e.g., anobject entering through the speaker grill), or other accidents. Examplesof damaged playback device parts which may be detected via audioplayback may include a voice coil of the speaker rubbing against a motorof the playback device, operation fatigue, damaged speaker diaphragm,tinsel wire fatigue, speaker surround tear, and/or other examplesspeaker damage or operation outside normal behavior.

Defects or other undesirable behavior in the playback device can beexperienced by the user in the form of undesirable noise such as rubbingor buzzing sounds and/or undesirable playback quality in the form ofmissing and/or deviated spectral content. The voice coil rubbing againsta motor of the playback device may produce a rubbing or buzzing soundduring playback and/or audio being played may have missing or deviatedspectral content. Some other defects for which a rubbing or buzzingsound and/or missing or deviated spectral content may be a sign includeoperation fatigue (e.g., tinsel wire fatigue) and/or physical damage(e.g., damaged speaker diaphragm or surround, loose parts).

Tinsel wire fatigue may occur in a woofer or tweeter and may lead to anopen circuit which presents during playback as missing and/or deviatedspectral content. As another example, if a surround or suspension whichis attached to a basket of the speaker driver and the diaphragm of thespeaker driver is torn, the speaker driver may lose some bass output orbass content during playback. Because a speaker driver may be tuned toproduce a response within a specific frequency range, the absence of,reduction in, and/or distortion in sound level of spectral content orsound in a frequency range which generally corresponds to the frequencyrange of the speaker driver may be used to identify a defect in aspeaker driver.

At block 502, a device in the system (e.g., control device, playbackdevice, computing device, remote computing device) can initiate orprovide an instruction to initiate a defect detection process which maybegin with playback of a test sound. For example, a user may select anoption on a user interface of a control device 300 to start a defectdetection process for a playback device. In another example, a user mayinitiate the defect detection process at the playback device by, forexample, providing input (e.g., selecting a button or combination ofbuttons) at the playback device. As yet another example, a controldevice or a remote computing device different from the control devicemay transmit a command or instruction to the playback device to startthe defect detection process. The command or instruction may betransmitted over one or more networks (e.g., LAN, WAN, internet,cellular network, short-range network). The computing device may be, forexample, a server remote from the control device and/or the playbackdevice and may be in communication with the control device and/orplayback device over one or more networks. For example, a remote user(e.g., customer support specialist) may be initiate the defect detectionprocess remotely from the playback device and/or the control device. Theremote user can using the remote server or any other device incommunication with the remote server send a message to the controldevice and/or the playback device to start the defect detection process(e.g., play the test sound). If the message is transmitted to thecontrol device, the control device may relay, transmit, or forward themessage to the playback device. In some aspects, the control device caninitiate the defect detection process, and the message from the remoteserver may cause the control device to initiate the defect detectionprocess in response to receiving the message.

In some aspects, the device may automatically initiate the defectdetection process based on certain conditions (e.g., during the initialsetup or configuration process, in response to a received instruction,in response to meeting or exceeding a threshold playback device age).For example, the defect detection process may be included as part of acalibration procedure such as a room calibration procedure where audiosettings of the playback device may be adjusted based on the playbackenvironment as described in U.S. application Ser. No. 14/216,306 filedon Mar. 17, 2014 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,219,460 on Dec. 22, 2015entitled “AUDIO SETTINGS BASED ON ENVIRONMENT” which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

The test sound may be a multi-tone audio test signal which may be anaudio signal having characteristics where the playback sound would coverthe entire audible audio spectrum at the same level and/or selected tohave certain playback characteristics based on different factors.Another example of the test sound may be a sequence of tones which mayor might not be separated pauses in sound or periods of silence. In someaspects, the test sound that is selected may be tailored for a specificdevice when the device (e.g., model, serial number, name) or type orcategory of device (e.g., full-range speaker, mid-range speaker,subwoofer, woofer, frequency response range of the playback device)being tested is known. For example, a full-range audio playback devicehas a different spectral response focus than a subwoofer. For asubwoofer, a test sound can be more focused in the lower frequency(e.g., bass) range whereas a test sound for a full-range audio playbackdevice may have a frequency response range focused on nearly all of thefrequencies which are audible to a human ear.

In some aspects, the test sound may be audio content (e.g., song, music,radio station) that has characteristics that enable usage as the testsound. For example, the characteristics may be spectral characteristicswhere the song during playback produces tones or sound across afull-range of the audio frequency spectrum or other desired frequencyrange as described herein. As another example, the audio content may bemixed in a manner that targets certain transducers or drivers orplayback devices in a group (e.g., zone group, bonded zone).

Another feature that can be used as a basis for selecting the test soundcan be the placement of the playback device such as the orientation(e.g., vertical, horizontal) or mounting type (e.g., ceiling, standing,wall-mounted) of the playback device which may have an effect on thesound characteristics of the playback device as experienced by alistener. As yet another example, test sounds can be selected to focuson specific drivers (e.g., mid-range, tweeter, full-range, subwoofer,woofer, etc.) in the playback device. By having the test sound cause theplayback device to only play in particular frequency ranges or audiochannels in a stereo configuration (e.g., left channel or right channelin a stereo configuration) or surround configuration (3.1 surround, 5.1surround, etc.) different types of drivers and/or different speakers canbe targeted. For example, to test a woofer in the playback device, thetest sound may contain only an audio signal for the frequency responserange of the woofer. If a subwoofer is a standalone playback device thatis part of a group of speakers (e.g., bonded zone), another playbackdevice may process the sound test and send only the channel or frequencyspectrum of audio content that is directed to the subwoofer.

Another basis on which a test sound can be selected is which device(s)is capturing and/or recording the playback of the test sound. Theplayback device may be playback device 200 which includes microphone(s)that can be used to record the test sound being played by the playbackdevice 200. In some devices, microphone quality may be better than inother types of devices. For example, a microphone in a mobile device orother microphone based device (e.g., voice control device) may be of ahigher quality than a microphone in the playback device. In someinstances a microphone external to the playback device may be moreoptimally placed than a microphone in the playback device. For example,an external microphone may be placed in a better location for detectingsound pressure level (SPL) drift in a playback device. In someinstances, a playback device might lack a microphone and an externalmicrophone may be used for the defect detection. In some aspects, onedevice with microphone(s) may capture the test sound while anotherdevice records or stores the captured test sound.

The test sound information may originate or be retrieved from a varietyof sources. For example, the test sound information may be stored in thedevice (e.g., control device, playback device, computing device) and/orbe transmitted to the device, and the transmission may occur over anetwork. A request may be transmitted from the playback device toanother device, and the playback device may receive the test sound inresponse to the request. The transmission of the response containing thetest sound may occur over a network.

At block 504, a device (e.g., playback device, another nearby playbackdevice, control device) including one or more microphones may record thetest sound played by the device in block 502. For example, the sameplayback device playing the test sound may record the test sound withthe microphone of the playback device. As the microphone closest to theplayback device's transducers, this microphone may pick up soundsoccurring within the playback device as a result of the playback of thetest sound which more distant microphones may not be able to capture.Additionally, the microphone of the playback device may be lesssensitive and/or susceptible to other noises (e.g., noises produced byother devices and/or people) or events occurring near the playbackdevice and, consequently, the recording by this microphone may be lessaffected by noises or events external to the playback device such asother noise producing objects, animals, or people in the vicinity of theplayback device. Because the playback device is playing the test soundas well as recording the test sound, the playback device knows when thetest sound will be produced and can cause the microphone to startrecording at the same time as playback of the test sound.

In some aspects, a device different than the playback device may recordthe test sound in addition to or instead of the playback devicerecording the test sound. For example, control device 300 may record thetest sound being played back from another playback device. Controldevice 300 or any other recording device may begin recording at any timeor may begin recording in response to a particular event such asdetecting the beginning of the test sound and/or upon expiration of atimer. For example, the playback device being tested and control device300 may coordinate the beginning of playback of the test sound and theending of the playback of the test sound. The recording of the testsound may be started and ended at the same time using a time stampand/or timer. In some instances, control device 300 may already berecording sound played by the playback device as part of a calibrationprocedure and may incorporate the recording of test sound with therecording of a calibration tone. The portion of the recording related tothe test sound may be delineated from the portion of the recordingrelated to the calibration tone using time stamps to mark the beginningand end of the test sound portion of the recording. In some aspects,because the playback device being tested might not have a microphone,another device such as control device 300 may have to record the testsound. The microphone device may stream (e.g., buffer and stream inreal-time) the captured test sound to another device for recording.

At block 506, the recording of the test sound may be compared with anexpected test sound. The comparison may be performed by one or moredevices (e.g., control device, computing device and/or playback device)using a variety of techniques, and the expected test sound may be storedon and/or transmitted to the one or more devices. For example, acomputing device may store the expected test sound and receive therecording of the test sound from control device 300 which recorded thetest sound. As another example, the recording device may transmit acomparison request to another device (e.g., control device, computingdevice, playback device), and the comparison request may includeinformation regarding the playback device which played the test soundand the recording of the test sound.

In analyzing the recorded test sound and the expected sound, a defect inthe playback device may be detected when a difference which exceedsand/or is equal to a threshold is determined from the comparison. Thedifference may be determined by, for example, comparing the spectralresponse of the recorded test sound and the spectral response of theexpected test sound. If the difference is greater than a threshold value(e.g., amplitude difference such as decibel difference at a particularfrequency or decibel difference of an average decibel over a frequencyrange, percentage amplitude difference), then a defect may be detectedfor the playback device. In some aspects, a defect may be detected if adifference between the recorded test sound and the expected test soundis less than and/or equal to a threshold from the comparison. If a testsound is designed to elicit a playback response which has a differencethat is greater than or equal to a difference threshold when comparedwith the expected test sound, a difference between the recorded testsound and expected test sound greater than or equal to differencethreshold may be an indication that a defect exists in the playbackdevice.

Another marker that may indicate the existence or presence of a defector other fault condition in the playback device may be the absence ofcertain spectral content and/or the presence of deviated spectralcontent. An example technique that may be used to determine that certainspectral content is absent or to identify the presence of deviatedspectral content may be to apply a fast Fourier transform (FFT) to therecorded test signal and the expected test signal and use spectralcontent analysis to identify difference(s) between the recorded testsound and the expected test sound which may be indicative of defect(s)in the playback device.

In some aspects, the presence of a defect may be determined without acomparison of the recorded test sound and the expected test sound. Forexample, a playback device may be tuned to have a substantially levelfrequency response. For such a playback device, a dip or valley in thefrequency response curve may signal or indicate missing and/or deviatedspectral content.

Another technique to determine the presence of rubbing and/or buzzingtype defects may include using a multi-tone distortion type analysis. Amulti-tone distortion analysis can be performed to detect for problemsinvolving playback device parts rubbing against each other and/orbuzzing sounds resulting from parts moving within the playback device. Adistortion analysis can determine whether missing and/or deviatedfrequencies are being output by the playback device. For example, if thetest sound is a multi-frequency tone that plays at the same level acrossthe entire spectrum and the playback device outputs specific frequenciesat different levels, then distortion may be present. Missing frequenciesmay be another example of distortion. Detecting frequencies outside ofthe frequency range of the multi-frequency tone may be yet anotherexample of distortion. Another example of distortion can be a phaseshift that may or might not vary by frequency. Each of these types ofdistortion and other types of known distortion may be identified ordetermined as described herein by comparing the recorded test sound andan expected test sound.

Another technique for determining whether a defect is detected may useneural networks. The neural network may be trained to recognize normaland/or abnormal speaker behavior or characteristics. The neural networkmay be trained for abnormal and/or normal behavior using recordings ofplayback devices with known abnormal conditions or defects playing thetest sounds. Because devices with the same type of defect may havecommon characteristics (e.g., sounds in the same frequency range,particular sounds in the same time range, similar sounds in response tocertain tones in the test sound). As another example, if the recordingof the test sound has a low match or a match value below a threshold tonormal behavior, the playback device may be identified as having adefect or other abnormal behavior. In yet another example, if thedifference between the recorded test sound characteristics and theexpected test sound characteristics is greater than or equal to athreshold, then the playback device may be identified as having adefect.

At block 508, the system determines whether a defect is detected basedon the results of the processing performed in block 506. If a defect isnot detected at block 508, method 500 may be completed and/or may beperformed again in the future periodically or aperiodically. If a defectis determined to be present based on the results of the comparisonperformed in block 506, method 500 may proceed to block 510.

At block 510, a notification may be provided to indicate a defect hasbeen detected. The notification may indicate preliminarily that a defecthas been detected. The notification provided in block 510 may include aprompt or a link for the user to select to initiate the second test ifthe second test is recommended based on the first test. A user selectionof the prompt or link may cause transmission of a command to theplayback device or another computing device to initiate a second test.The notification may be in the form of a notification to the user and/orto customer support of a company providing assistance or support withthe playback device. The notification may be in the form of an email,text, pop-up, prompt, voice, and/or other form of communication. Thenotification may or might not be in a user interactive format.

At block 512, method 500 may determine whether to perform a second test.Based on the type of defect detected in block 508, a second test may beperformed to confirm and/or to further identify the type of defectpresent in the playback device. If, in block 512, the system determinesnot to perform a second test, method 500 may proceed to block 522 todetermine whether to adjust playback responsibility in view of adetected defect in the playback device. If the system determines that asecond test may be performed, method 500 may proceed to block 514 toidentify the second test to perform. The second test to perform may bethe same or a different test than the test performed in blocks 502-504.The determination of whether to perform a second test can depend on avariety of factors such as the device type, types of drivers in thedevice, numbers of drivers, and/or defect type identified from the firsttest.

A second test that can be performed may be a test tailored to furtheridentify and/or collect more details on the type of defect determined inblock 508 because different types of defects may have differentcharacteristics. The second test may be a test tailored to theparticular device category, for example, if the test sound played instep 502 is a standard or generic test sound used for all devices ordevices of a certain type (e.g., subwoofer, sound bar, full-range, etc.)similar to the first test sound. For example, a test which is focused onexacerbating undesirable noises may be different and have differentaudio characteristics than a test targeted to identifying missing and/ordeteriorated spectral content.

The second test may be adapted or adjusted based on the results of thefirst test. For example, a first test may identify a general range offrequencies in which the playback device has missing and/or deterioratedspectral playback characteristics. The second test may be tailored tothe general range of frequencies with abnormal or undesirablecharacteristics identified from the first test. For example, the secondtest may play audio signals only within the general range of abnormalfrequencies which may include playing individual frequencies to furtheridentify the specific problematic frequencies and/or playing differentcombinations of frequencies. The second test may be a sequence of tonesin the same or different frequencies. The sequence of tones may beplayed with and/or without pause between each tone. Using a sequence oftones may be helpful in the situation where playing a tone at afrequency or within a frequency range may cause the playback device toproduce a sound in a different frequency (e.g., harmonic frequency).

Similar to the first test sound, the second test may focus on certaintransducers or drivers within the playback device such as full-rangetransducers, mid-range transducers, woofers, and/or tweeters.Transducers within the same playback device may have overlapping or thesame frequency output ranges. Because of the overlapping or samefrequency output ranges, the second test may be a test used to discernwhich of the transducers in the same playback device are problematic.The second test may target each transducer of the playback device byplaying a test sound specific to the frequency range of the transducerand/or including information (e.g., channel information) with the testsignal about which transducer to direct a portion or entirety of thetest signal.

At block 516, the second test identified in block 514 may be performed.Similar to the first test, the second test may use the playback deviceand/or a computing device as the recording device. The second test mayor might not use the playback device as the recording device. Asdiscussed earlier herein, a microphone external to the playback devicemay be used to record the test sound in the second test. The microphoneused to record the second test may be the same or different from themicrophone used to record the first test.

In block 518, the results of the second test can be analyzed todetermine whether the second test provided positive results such asconfirming and/or further identifying the type of defect present. Anotification can be provided at block 520 indicating the results of thesecond test (e.g., a positive, negative, or inconclusive result). Thenotification in block 520 may be similar to the notification provided inblock 510. The format of the notification may be the same or differentthan the format of the notification in block 510.

If the second test is inconclusive and/or provides a different resultthan the result in block 508 (e.g., false positive) method 500 mayproceed to block 522 and/or conduct another sound test which may beperformed in a manner similar to the first test and/or the second test.At block 522, the system can determine whether to adjust playbackresponsibility of the playback device which may have a defect. If thesystem determines to adjust playback responsibility of the playbackwhich has a defect, the method may proceed to block 524 and adjustplayback responsibility. Blocks 522 and 524 may be performed asdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/489,674 filed Jun. 6,2012 issuing as U.S. Pat. No. 8,903,526 on Dec. 2, 2014 and entitled“Device playback failure recovery and redistribution,” which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

While method 500 has been described with respect to conducting a firsttest or conducting a first test and a second test, more than two testsmay be performed. For example, blocks 512-520 may be repeated asappropriate to further refine the test results or to better identify thespecific defect present in the playback device. As described in blocks512-520, each further test may be further tailored to the playbackdevice and/or detected defect and can be based on the results of theprevious one or more tests.

IV. Example Method and System of Adjusting Playback Device SettingsBased on Usage Activity

As discussed above, embodiments described herein may involve detectingdefects in a speaker via audio playback. Method 600 shown in FIG. 6presents an embodiment of a method that can be implemented within anoperating environment involving, for example, the media playback system100 of FIG. 1, one or more of the playback device 200 of FIG. 2, and oneor more of the control device 300 of FIG. 3. Method 600 may include oneor more operations, functions, or actions as illustrated by one or moreof blocks 602-610. Although the blocks are illustrated in sequentialorder, these blocks may also be performed in parallel, and/or in adifferent order than those described herein. Also, the various blocksmay be combined into fewer blocks, divided into additional blocks,and/or removed based upon the desired implementation.

In addition, for the method 600 and other processes and methodsdisclosed herein, the flowchart shows functionality and operation of onepossible implementation of present embodiments. In this regard, eachblock may represent a module, a segment, or a portion of program code,which includes one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. Theprogram code may be stored on any type of computer readable medium, forexample, such as a storage device including a disk or hard drive. Thecomputer readable medium may include non-transitory computer readablemedium, for example, such as computer-readable media that stores datafor short periods of time like register memory, processor cache andRandom Access Memory (RAM). The computer readable medium may alsoinclude non-transitory media, such as secondary or persistent long termstorage, like read only memory (ROM), optical or magnetic disks,compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. The computerreadable media may also be any other volatile or non-volatile storagesystems. The computer readable medium may be considered a computerreadable storage medium, for example, or a tangible storage device. Inaddition, for the method 600 and other processes and methods disclosedherein, each block in FIG. 6 may represent circuitry that is wired toperform the specific logical functions in the process.

FIG. 6 depicts a flow diagram of a method 600 for adjusting playbackdevice settings based on usage activity. As the playback device is used,the playback device's sound or performance characteristics (e.g., soundpressure level) may change over time which may cause undesirable and/orsuboptimal playback characteristics (e.g., lower volume output, lessefficient volume output). In some instances, the frequency response atcertain frequencies or in certain frequency ranges may improve or becomemore efficient over time such that a rebalancing may be performed toretune the playback device to a desired frequency response curve. Inresponse to the change in the playback device's sound or performancecharacteristics, audio settings of the playback device may be adjustedto compensate for the change.

At block 602, a device (e.g., control device, playback device, server)can determine an activity time value for the playback device. Theactivity time value may be the total or lifetime amount of time that aplayback device is active (e.g., powered on) which may include totalactivity across all types of activity (e.g., lifetime activity value)and/or the activity value may be collected individually for differentcategories or types of usage activity (e.g., playback time, standbytime, streaming time, paused time, grouped time, bonded time, surroundsound configuration time, stereo pair configuration time, wiredconnectivity, wireless connectivity, channel specific playback time(e.g., left channel, right channel, center channel, rear left channel,rear right channel, subwoofer channel, etc.). The amount of time thatthe playback device spends performing certain activities may be trackedindividually and/or collectively and used to update a total time for theactivity mode when the playback device enters a new activity mode. Thetotal time may be updated in increments of time spent in the activitymode (e.g., every x seconds, minutes, or hours). Different activitymodes may be, for example, time spent playing back media content, timethat the playback device is powered on, and/or time spent in standbymode. Active time during which the playback device is unassociated witha household identifier can be tracked. This time may indicate usageprior to activation by a customer (e.g., usage or testing duringproduction).

A time stamp may be determined at the time an activity mode is startedand ended to determine the amount of time that the playback device spentin the activity mode. As another example, one or more timers which mayrun concurrently may be started each time an activity mode is startedand stopped each time an activity mode ends, and the timer value may bestored as the amount of time lapsed or spent in each activity mode.

At block 604, the playback device can update the lifetime activity valuestored in the memory of the playback device for the particular activity.The activity time value can be added to the stored lifetime activityvalue stored in the memory to achieve a running total of lifetime timespent in the various activity modes. The updated lifetime value may beagain be stored in the memory. Each lifetime value update may be storedin the memory with a time stamp to provide a history of usage and/ortrack usage. The lifetime activity value may be stored in a memoryoutside of the playback device (e.g., control device, remote computingdevice, or other device).

At block 606, the system can determine whether to adjust settings of theplayback device based on activity values and/or the lifetime activityvalues. The determination of whether to adjust settings of the playbackdevice may be based on various activity values including individualand/or collective values, and the various activity values may becompared to a corresponding threshold to determine whether to adjust theaudio settings based on activity values. For example, a lifetime agingcurve may be used to determine audio settings to apply to a playbackdevice based on the specific activity values associated with theplayback device. For example, different audio settings (e.g.,equalization settings) may be applied to the playback device fordifferent amounts of playback time or different ranges of playback time.

If it is decided not to adjust settings of the playback device, themethod may return to block 602 to determine or monitor the amount oftime that the playback device performs different activities. If it isdecided to adjust the audio settings of the playback device at block606, the method may proceed to optional block 608 or directly to block610.

At block 608, the user may be notified of recommended devicemaintenance. In some aspects, the adjustment may be performedautomatically by the playback device or other device in the system. Ifthe adjustment is performed automatically by the playback device, theuser might not receive an alert in block 608 and method 600 may proceedto block 610. In some aspects, the adjustment may be a process initiatedby the user. For example, the user may perform the room calibrationprocess again which may or might not include detecting for defectsaccording to method 500 as described herein. The alert or notificationmay be similar to the type of notification (e.g., e-mail, prompt, textmessage, pop-up window, voice feedback) provided in block 510.

At block 610, the playback device can adjust settings of the playbackdevice based on lifetime activity value and/or individual values. Theplayback settings adjusted may be equalization settings of the playbackdevice, and the equalization settings used for the playback device mayvary depending on the lifetime value and/or individual activity values.For example, different parts (e.g., voice coil, surround, diaphragm,motor) of the playback device may age or change at different rates inview of the activity values. Moreover, the playback device may have a“break-in” period where usage of a fairly new playback device (e.g., lowactivity values) may cause the audio characteristics to change quicklyduring a particular time period.

The audio settings applied to the playback device may become the newdefault audio settings, and any further adjustment of audio settings bythe user (e.g., genre-based equalization setting, media content typeaudio settings (e.g., spoken audio, movie)) may be applied on top of theaudio settings applied based on lifetime activity values.

Method 600 may proceed from block 610 and return to block 602 todetermining the activity time value and updating the value in memory.Method 600 may be performed periodically or aperiodically and/or inresponse to specific events (e.g., receiving an instruction to calibratethe playback device based on usage).

IV. Conclusion

The description above discloses, among other things, various examplesystems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture including,among other components, firmware and/or software executed on hardware.It is understood that such examples are merely illustrative and shouldnot be considered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that anyor all of the firmware, hardware, and/or software aspects or componentscan be embodied exclusively in hardware, exclusively in software,exclusively in firmware, or in any combination of hardware, software,and/or firmware. Accordingly, the examples provided are not the onlyway(s) to implement such systems, methods, apparatus, and/or articles ofmanufacture.

As indicated above, the examples provided herein may involve detecting adefect via audio playback on a playback device. In one aspects, aplayback device is provided. The playback device may include one or moreprocessors, one or more transducers, one or more microphones, and memoryhaving stored thereon instructions executable by the one or moreprocessors to cause the playback device to perform functions. Thefunctions may include playing a test sound via the one or moretransducers. The one or more microphones may capture the test soundduring the time period, and the playback device may record the capturedtest sound. The playback device may cause the recorded test sound to becompared with an expected test sound. A determination of whether theplayback device has a defect may be based on the comparison.

In another aspect, a method may be provided. The method may includeplaying, via a playback device, a test sound, and capturing, via one ormore microphones of the playback device, the test sound. The method mayfurther include causing a comparison of the recorded test sound with anexpected test sound. A determination that a defect in the playbackdevice has been detected may be based on the recorded test sound.

In yet another aspect, a non-transitory computer readable memory isprovided. The non-transitory computer readable memory has stored thereoninstructions executable by a computing device to cause the computingdevice to perform functions. The functions include playing a test soundand capturing, via one or more microphones of the playback device, thetest sound. The functions can further include recording the capturedtest sound, causing a comparison of the recorded test sound with anexpected test sound and determining that a defect in the playback deviceexists based on the recorded test sound.

Additionally, references herein to “embodiment” means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment can be included in at least one example embodiment of aninvention. The appearances of this phrase in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment,nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of otherembodiments. As such, the embodiments described herein, explicitly andimplicitly understood by one skilled in the art, can be combined withother embodiments.

The specification is presented largely in terms of illustrativeenvironments, systems, procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing, andother symbolic representations that directly or indirectly resemble theoperations of data processing devices coupled to networks. These processdescriptions and representations are typically used by those skilled inthe art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to othersskilled in the art. Numerous specific details are set forth to provide athorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it isunderstood to those skilled in the art that certain embodiments of thepresent disclosure can be practiced without certain, specific details.In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, andcircuitry have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring aspects of the embodiments. Accordingly, the scope of thepresent disclosure is defined by the appended claims rather than theforgoing description of embodiments.

When any of the appended claims are read to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the elements in at leastone example is hereby expressly defined to include a tangible,non-transitory medium such as a memory, DVD, CD, Blu-ray, and so on,storing the software and/or firmware.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A playback device, comprising: one or moreprocessors; one or more transducers; memory comprising instructions thatwhen executed by the one or more processors cause the playback device toperform functions comprising: determine a first activity time value forthe playback device, wherein the first activity time value comprises afirst amount of time the playback device performs a first activity mode;determine whether to adjust one or more first settings of the playbackdevice based on the determined first activity time value; and if it isdetermined to adjust the one or more first settings of the playbackdevice, then adjust the one or more first settings of the playbackdevice; and if it is not determined to adjust the one or more firstsettings of the playback device, then forego adjusting the one or morefirst settings of the playback device.
 22. The playback device of claim21, wherein determining a first activity time value for the playbackdevice comprises: determine a first activity time value for the playbackdevice and a second activity time value for the playback device, whereinthe first activity time value comprises a first amount of time theplayback device performs a first activity mode and wherein the secondactivity time value comprises a second amount of time the playbackdevice performs a second activity mode.
 23. The playback device of claim22, the functions further comprising: determine whether to adjust one ormore second settings of the playback device based on the determinedsecond activity value; and if it is determined to adjust the one or moresecond settings of the playback device, then adjust the one or moresecond settings of the playback device; and if it is not determined toadjust the one or more second settings of the playback device, thenforego adjusting the one or more second settings of the playback device.24. The playback device of claim 21, wherein the first activity modeincludes at least one of powered time of the playback device, playbacktime of the playback device, standby time of the playback device, pausedtime of the playback device, grouped time of the playback device, bondedtime of the playback device, surround sound configuration time of theplayback device, stereo pair configuration time of the playback device,wired connectivity time of the playback device, wireless connectivitytime of the playback device, and channel specific playback time of theplayback device.
 25. The playback device of claim 21, wherein the firstamount of time the playback device performs the first activity mode ofthe playback device comprises a total amount of time the playback deviceperforms the first activity mode.
 26. The playback device of claim 21,wherein the first amount of time the playback device performs the firstactivity mode of the playback device comprises a time that is less thana total amount of time the playback device performs the first activitymode.
 27. The playback device of claim 21, wherein the one or more firstsettings of the playback device includes equalization settings.
 28. Theplayback device of claim 21, wherein determining whether to adjust oneor more first settings of the playback device based on the determinedfirst activity time value comprises comparing the first activity timevalue to a first activity time value threshold.
 29. The playback deviceof claim 21, wherein the functions further comprise: prior to adjustingthe one or more first settings of the playback device, generate an alertregarding adjusting the one or more first settings of the playbackdevice, and wherein adjusting the one or more first settings of theplayback device is initiated by a command from a user.
 30. A tangible,non-transitory computer-readable memory storing instructions that whenexecuted by one or more processors cause a computing device to performfunctions comprising: determine a first activity time value for theplayback device, wherein the first activity time value comprises a firstamount of time the playback device performs a first activity mode;determine whether to adjust one or more first settings of the playbackdevice based on the determined first activity time value; and if it isdetermined to adjust the one or more first settings of the playbackdevice, then adjust the one or more first settings of the playbackdevice; and if it is not determined to adjust the one or more firstsettings of the playback device, then forego adjusting the one or morefirst settings of the playback device.
 31. The computer-readable memoryof claim 30, wherein determining a first activity time value for theplayback device comprises: determine a first activity time value for theplayback device and a second activity time value for the playbackdevice, wherein the first activity time value comprises a first amountof time the playback device performs a first activity mode and whereinthe second activity time value comprises a second amount of time theplayback device performs a second activity mode.
 32. Thecomputer-readable memory of claim 31, the functions further comprising:determine whether to adjust one or more second settings of the playbackdevice based on the determined second activity value; and if it isdetermined to adjust the one or more second settings of the playbackdevice, then adjust the one or more second settings of the playbackdevice; and if it is not determined to adjust the one or more secondsettings of the playback device, then forego adjusting the one or moresecond settings of the playback device.
 33. The computer-readable memoryof claim 30, wherein the first activity mode includes at least one ofpowered time of the playback device, playback time of the playbackdevice, standby time of the playback device, paused time of the playbackdevice, grouped time of the playback device, bonded time of the playbackdevice, surround sound configuration time of the playback device, stereopair configuration time of the playback device, wired connectivity timeof the playback device, wireless connectivity time of the playbackdevice, and channel specific playback time of the playback device. 34.The computer-readable memory of claim 30, wherein the first amount oftime the playback device performs the first activity mode of theplayback device comprises a total amount of time the playback deviceperforms the first activity mode.
 35. The computer-readable memory ofclaim 30, wherein the functions further comprise: prior to adjusting theone or more first settings of the playback device, generate an alertregarding adjusting the one or more first settings of the playbackdevice, and wherein adjusting the one or more first settings of theplayback device is initiated by a command from a user.
 36. A method,comprising: determining a first activity time value for the playbackdevice, wherein the first activity time value comprises a first amountof time the playback device performs a first activity mode; determiningwhether to adjust one or more first settings of the playback devicebased on the determined first activity time value; and if it isdetermined to adjust the one or more first settings of the playbackdevice, then adjusting the one or more first settings of the playbackdevice; and if it is not determined to adjust the one or more firstsettings of the playback device, then forego adjusting the one or morefirst settings of the playback device.
 37. The computer-readable memoryof claim 36, wherein determining a first activity time value for theplayback device comprises: determining a first activity time value forthe playback device and a second activity time value for the playbackdevice, wherein the first activity time value comprises a first amountof time the playback device performs a first activity mode and whereinthe second activity time value comprises a second amount of time theplayback device performs a second activity mode.
 38. Thecomputer-readable memory of claim 37, the functions further comprising:determining whether to adjust one or more second settings of theplayback device based on the determined second activity value; and if itis determined to adjust the one or more second settings of the playbackdevice, then adjusting the one or more second settings of the playbackdevice; and if it is not determined to adjust the one or more secondsettings of the playback device, then forego adjusting the one or moresecond settings of the playback device.
 39. The method of claim 36,wherein the first activity mode includes at least one of powered time ofthe playback device, playback time of the playback device, standby timeof the playback device, paused time of the playback device, grouped timeof the playback device, bonded time of the playback device, surroundsound configuration time of the playback device, stereo pairconfiguration time of the playback device, wired connectivity time ofthe playback device, wireless connectivity time of the playback device,and channel specific playback time of the playback device.
 40. Themethod of claim 36, wherein the functions further comprise: prior toadjusting the one or more first settings of the playback device,generating an alert regarding adjusting the one or more first settingsof the playback device, and wherein adjusting the one or more firstsettings of the playback device is initiated by a command from a user.